Adam Rahma I, Rajaratnam Surendran, Sufian Farha Deba, Njogu Lucy
WorldFish Kenya, C/O International Livestock Researtablech Institute, Nairobi, Kenya.
Center for Research in Psychology and Human Well-Being, Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities (FSSK), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi Selangor Dahul Ehsan, Malaysia.
PLoS One. 2025 Jan 10;20(1):e0314284. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0314284. eCollection 2025.
Gender equality and women's empowerment have been increasingly emphasised in food production systems, including fisheries and aquaculture. Accurate assessment and understanding of the state, progress and changes in women's empowerment in the sub-sectors is required. We applied the project level Women's Empowerment in Fisheries and Aquaculture Index (pro-WEFI), which is based on the project-level women's empowerment in agriculture index (pro-WEAI) to standardize the measurement of women's agency and empowerment in fisheries and aquaculture. Drawing on a survey conducted in north-western Bangladesh, we examined quantitative pro-WEFI data collected from 217 households engaged in aquaculture. Only 33% of the women and 48% of the men in the sample achieved empowerment in aquaculture, attaining scores of 0.75 and above. The mean disempowerment score (1-3DE) revealed that both women and men failed to achieve adequacy on average in nearly 28% of the indicators. Nearly 40% of the dual adult households did not attain gender parity with women achieving lower adequacy scores than men from the same household. Women's disempowerment was primarily driven by lack of autonomy in their use of income (18.5%), inability to visit important locations (17.4%), and inadequate access to and decision making on financial services (13.4%). Our findings emphasize the significance of conducting comprehensive assessments of women's empowerment in aquaculture initiatives and its various domains and indicators inform the development of targeted and effective interventions. By identifying domains where gender inequality is most pronounced, projects can better design interventions to create targeted impacts in critical areas.
在包括渔业和水产养殖在内的粮食生产系统中，性别平等和妇女赋权越来越受到重视。需要准确评估和了解这些子部门中妇女赋权的状况、进展和变化。我们应用了基于农业项目层面妇女赋权指数（pro-WEAI）的渔业和水产养殖项目层面妇女赋权指数（pro-WEFI），以规范渔业和水产养殖中妇女的能动性和赋权的衡量标准。根据在孟加拉国西北部进行的一项调查，我们研究了从217个从事水产养殖的家庭收集的pro-WEFI定量数据。样本中只有33%的女性和48%的男性在水产养殖中实现了赋权，得分达到0.75及以上。平均剥夺权利得分（1-3DE）显示，男性和女性在近28%的指标上平均都未达到充分程度。近40%的双成人家庭没有实现性别平等，女性的充分程度得分低于同一家庭中的男性。妇女被剥夺权利的主要原因是在使用收入方面缺乏自主权（18.5%）、无法前往重要地点（17.4%）以及在金融服务的获取和决策方面不足（13.4%）。我们的研究结果强调了对水产养殖倡议中妇女赋权及其各个领域和指标进行全面评估的重要性，为制定有针对性和有效的干预措施提供依据。通过确定性别不平等最明显的领域，项目可以更好地设计干预措施，在关键领域产生有针对性的影响。
